Despite the massive failure of their attempt to rival Netflix with on-line DVD rentals, Wal-Mart are about to jump into the digital movie download market with both clumsy feet. The big-box supermarket announced a deal with six major studios today -Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal - to sell digital movies and television shows on its website.

The size of the company plus the number of studios on board means they’ll be major players - and they’ll more than likely make sure their movies are the cheapest. They’ll apparently have a catalogue of 3,000 titles, with prices up to $19.88 for new releases and TV episodes selling for $1.96. So still not that cheap.

I’m not a big fan of Wal-Mart, for all kinds of reasons, but this news is interesting because a traditional retailer getting involved will help determine whether digital downloading is the future for how we watch movies. Right now I’m not convinced, and here’s why:

1) It costs roughly the same amount of money to download a movie as it does to buy a DVD, but you don’t get any extras.
2) The downloads are described as “near DVD” quality. This means they’re not quite as good.
3) It takes about 45 minutes to download a movie.
4) You can loan DVDs to friends in exchange for other DVDs.
5) You have to leave your house to buy a DVD. This is a good thing.

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